Nigeria as a country is blessed with a large number of literate people: scientists, engineers and so on, yet the manpower needed to harness its enormous resources should be the natural outcome of its education system. The paper reassesses the notion which hinges African economic development on the achievements of its formal education system. The paper, due to this raises some questions among which are: is development best measured with the yardstick of high percentage of literate youths? Can we read economic achievements into the quantity and quality of engineers, scientists and etc. that a nation is able to produce? What ethics predominates in the conglobation of African elite to influence African development?

Materials are drawn from the rich stock of traditional Yoruba proverbs while two novels by Chinua Achebe’s: No Longer at Ease and T. A. Awoniyi’s Aiye Kooto analyse the ingredients necessary for the creation of a ‘total man’. They also provide veritable socio-political backgrounds for an adequate comparison of the various concept of education churned up in the process.

The paper identifies the failure of the current education system by its products symbolized by the ill-trained and corrupt elite at the helms of affairs in the country. The paper reiterates how contemporary education system can incorporate African traditional system of education. This symbiotic combination is emphasized as capable of guaranteeing the formation of a ‘total man’. The paper sees the ‘total man’ as the palliative to evolved individuals that are ill-trained physically and mentally to fast-track the development of African continent on the social, political and economic fronts.

The importance of this paper rests on its interdisciplinary assessment and use of African cultural perspective, literature and myths to conceptualise the problems inherent in Nigerian education system.